Women's Journal: Contenders prep for midseason clashes

BC will have its hands full with Golden Knights forward Jamie Lee
Rattray. (Photo: Clarkson Athletics)

The week after New Year’s seems to be a
light one for a lot of people, but it’s not when it comes to
key national games in women’s college hockey.

Two games dot this week’s intersession
schedule that could be previews of national semifinal or
championship games on both the Division I and III levels: Thursday
evening’s Boston College versus Clarkson tilt, and
Plattsburgh’s Sunday afternoon hosting of Norwich.

In a snowy and cold Postdam, N.Y., the surging
Eagles (15-3) will test their mettle against what some believe to
be the best team on the East Coast in Clarkson. The Golden Knights
are led by sure-to-be Patty Kazmaier finalist Jamie Lee Rattay. The
junior forward sits eighth in the nation in goals per game with
0.83. She has proven her usefulness in clutch situations, having
scored five game winning goals so far this season, leading the
nation in the category.

Another key part of Clarkson’s success has
been the play of junior goaltender Erica Howe, who sits in the top
ten of almost all of the statistical categories for goaltenders
this season. In Howe, Clarkson has a steady netminder who has been
able to make huge stops against experienced offenses like North
Dakota’s and Cornell’s. She’s made over 30 saves
in a game five times this season, including two 36-save games. One
of those 36-save games was against Quinnipiac, a team who, like
Boston College, has two extremely strong forward lines with well
distributed goal scoring.

What will help Boston College counter a strong
Golden Knights squad could be the high level of practice the
Eagles’ leaders have been at over the holidays. The Eagles
sent four members of their current squad to U.S. National Team
Winter Camp last week - Emily Field (Littleton, Mass.), Alex
Carpenter (North Reading, Mass.), Emily Pfalzer, and Haley Skarupa.
The four spent the break playing among the nation’s best,
which should leave them well-tuned for the strong team Clarkson has
to offer.

The Eagles will especially need to bring that
national team level game Thursday night – Clarkson has not
lost the first game of a back-to-back game weekend at all this
season.

If Boston College does fall to Clarkson this
Thursday, that could spell success for their Hockey East neighbor,
Northeastern. All three of Clarkson’s losses this season have
come in the second game of a back-to-back.

Just over an hour and a half away (if all the
roads are well plowed, of course), Norwich will travel to
Plattsburgh for a Sunday afternoon game. The two teams are securely
in the national top ten on the Division III level, but Plattsburgh
is having the more successful season thus far. Plattsburgh is
undefeated through 11 games. Their only non-win was a 2-2 tie
against Norwich in both teams’ second regular season game of
the season. The Cardinals have two players in the nation’s
top ten of scoring: Jenny Kistner (1.8) and Teal Gove (1.45). In
October’s meeting between the two teams, Kistner (a former
Maine Black Bear) and Gove connected on a key third period goal
that got Plattsburgh on the scoreboard.

Norwich isn’t that far behind with a 6-1-3
record. Transfer Tori Charron has been on a tear this season.
She’s only been left off the scoresheet twice, and is right
up there in the national scoring leaders with Kistner and Gove.
When the two teams met in late October, Charron had two
assists.

Game of the Week

See above!

Player of the Week

Lindsay Holdcroft, goalie, Dartmouth
College

In Dartmouth’s 4-2 win in a non-conference
matchup against Providence, junior goaltender Holdcroft made 32
saves despite being peppered from a wide variety of Friars’
forwards. The win moved Dartmouth to a mark of 7-4-2 on the season,
which puts them among the ECAC’s elite. Holdcroft’s
individual record improved to 6-3-2.

Division III Note of the
Week

Bowdoin sits at 5-1-1 on the season thanks to two
long weekend wins out West. The Polar Bears earned a solid 3-2 win
against Wisconsin’s St. Norbert on Sunday. Sophomore Schuyler
Nardelli and senior captain Kayte Holtz combined for helpers on two
of Bowdoin’s goals. The helpers were Nardelli’s first
of the season, and she now leads Bowdoin’s scoring with five
goals and two assists. In a 4-3 overtime win over Concordia on
Monday, Holtz scored the game winner with just ten seconds left in
the extra frame.

Power Rankings

1) Harvard (9-1-1 overall, 7-0
ECAC) - The Crimson head out to Union and RPI this weekend
in ECAC play. Their 2-2 tie of New Hampshire in early December will
be huge motivation for Harvard, and expect them to take out some
pent up scoring aggression on their conference mates.

2) Boston College (11-3-2 overall, 8-2-1
Hockey East) - This Thursday’s matchup against
Clarkson looks to be one of the best games of the season. The
Eagles defense should have one of their biggest challenges yet, but
Blake Bolden and company have proven their mettle several times
already this season.

3) Boston University (11-3-3 overall,
6-2-1 Hockey East) - The Terriers won’t skate back
into action until next Tuesday, when they face a UConn team who
hasn’t won a game since October 26th.

4) Northeastern (10-5-2 overall, 5-4-1
Hockey East) - The Huskies are taking an intersession week
to train in Lake Placid before they face St. Lawrence and Clarkson
this weekend. They haven’t played since December 5th, when
they edged Dartmouth, 3-2.

5) Dartmouth (7-4-2 overall, 3-3-1
ECAC) - The Big Green have to make an appearance on the
Power Rankings after being on the fringe this week, since they were
one of the few teams who actually played over the break. Dartmouth
has won three straight games, including a strong 4-2 win on New
Year’s Eve against Providence. Dartmouth joins Ivy foe
Harvard in back-to-back games against RPI and Union this weekend.
Fans will get the best sense of what this team can do next Friday,
when they face Quinnipiac for the first time since
October.